It’s not exactly heaven…

…in country No: 77…!! Not on our first day here anyway…!!

We rode into Malaysia today… We left the boring and seemingly bewildered town of Songkhla on the eastern seaboard of Thailand and rode through Hat Yai and on to Sadao, heading due south on the highway that led to the Malaysian border…

Motor cycles use a special lane which makes things a lot simpler...

We met this Swiss rider, who was on his way around the world on his GS 1150...

Change of culture makes for a less than happy population it would seem… Smiles for the most part were in short supply… The guys at the customs office in Thailand seemed uninterested in getting us sorted out at first, but then reluctantly pointed us in the direction of a small office where we had our passports stamped and departure cards collected…

We met and chatted briefly to a Swiss rider who was on his way around the world, and seemed to be unsure of where he was heading next… He was exiting Malaysia having spent a day there after riding in through the same border post he now stood at… His wife was waiting for him in Bangkok on her GS 650, and together they were heading north towards Laos and Cambodia…

On the Malaysian side, the Big Fella caused a bit of a traffic jam...

A few hundred metres up the road, the far more impressive and modern Malaysian border post stood waiting… We were ushered down a special lane just for bikes, and had to have our fingerprints bio-metrically screened before our passports were stamped by a surly young guy who seemed extremely unhappy to be cooped up in his little office…

When he saw the long line of scooters that had built up behind the Big Fella and I, he became even more disgruntled…

Getting through customs was a breeze...after we had located the office, that is...!!

Although the customs guy managed to crack a few jokes with us, on the whole, most of the people we encountered at the border seemed to be in a dour mood… I later discovered that there is not a lot of love lost between the Thai and the Malay, due in part to the fact that the Thai rebels fighting on the country’s south-eastern border, often hide across the border in northern Malaysia to escape from the Thai authorities… Many Thai are regarded with suspicion in the border area, hence the lack of a warm welcome to Malaysia…

Perhaps it was also something to do with the recent “sudden passing”, of the “World Hide and Seek Champion”, (although I doubt that he was a hero in Malaysia…!!) who was found to be hiding in Pakistan of all places…!! Imagine that…!! What an enormous surprise…!!

I have it on good authority (from the most reliable of sources of course…!!) that Sir Elton John has composed a song he will be singing at the commemorative service to be held some time in the distant future…

The song is called “Sandles in the Bin”…

But I digress…

Confirmation of our arrival in Malaysia...

I still marvel at how far the Big Fella and I have come together… I think back to when I left on my trip and even though I had a long list of countries I planned to visit, I still can’t believe that we have covered so much ground…

With the capital so far away, we opted to head to Penang on the coast...

We had considered going to Lankawi Island, but had heard that it was just another version of Phuket, and we had had more than enough of the bright lights… And besides that, Philip had only a few more days in which to get all the way down the peninsula and into Singapore to catch his flight home, and we still had a lot of ground to cover…

He was already ahead of us somewhere, sitting in the comfort of an air-conditioned bus, bound for Penang, while we were sweating bullets in the oppressive heat …

Big Red carries Trev and Chenty effortlessly towards Penang...

After raiding an ATM in the town close to the border, and then re-fueling the Big Fella at Changlun, we motored down the highway, passing Jitra and Sungai Petari, before heading west towards Penang…

We passed through Butterworth on the mainland, and then rode out onto the bridge that led to the island…

Crossing the impressive 8 km long bridge that separates Penang from the mainland...

Georgetown is the capital of Penang State, which encompasses a large portion of mainland Malaysia… It is a holiday destination of sorts, judging by the number of beachfront hotels we came across while searching for one that suited our budget…

Georgetown lay at the far end of the bridge...

We stopped in Batu Ferrengii, or Foreigners Rock, which is on the northern end of the island, and where most of the ex-pats used to come for seaside holidays in the “good old days”… We sat at an outdoor restaurant of sorts, and enjoyed a cold beer while we tried to locate Phil…

Our run of good timing continued, and after just a few minutes ride, we located him on the main road that led along the seawall in the hotel district…

The Good Hope Inn which we finally settled on, had me thinking about our own fair Cape...

Although our hotel was not quite on a seafront, it was just a block up from it, and we were able to walk through the parking lot of the far bigger hotel next door to get to it…

We quickly discovered that prices for most things in Malaysia are much steeper than in Thailand… But I guess that is the price you pay for having a far better infrastructure than your northern neighbour…!! Malaysia’s economy is probably, with the exception of Singapore’s, the strongest in South East Asia, due mainly to it’s vast offshore oil deposits…

With no beaches nearby to relax on, we decided to make a tour of the island the next day, and planned our route accordingly…

©GBWT 2011